While it's easier to manage one switch than many switches, a single switch may not give you all the ports you need. To solve this problem, stackable switches allow you to combine the individual switches into a single stack, which operates like a single switch. This provides an easy way to manage a large number of ports. InterVLAN routing and spanning tree protocol work with a switch stack in the same way they'd work with just one switch. Another big advantage to stacking switches is the failover capability they provide. For example, you can connect servers with multiple NICs to multiple switches in the stack. In that way, the server is still accessible even if one switch goes down.

Cisco's technology for stacking switches is called StackWise (and StackWise Plus). You can read more about these technologies at www.cisco.com/go/stackwise.

CISCO recommends the use of an anchor controller dedicated to guest traffic to differentiate guest access from secured network areas. Guest anchor controllers are generally located in an unsecured network area, also called a Demilitarized Zone, and efficiently segregate traffic based on access levels. This is a beneficial way to protect the network while still providing access for guests.

To configure the wireless guess access with an anchor controller, create and enable WLAN on the Foreign controller. Set the Layer 2 Security to None. Set the layer 3 security to Web Policy. Set up an identical WLAN on the Anchor controller. Then, set up Mobility between the two controllers via Foreign Controller -> Mobility Management -> Mobility groups and add the Anchor controller’s IP address, Burned in MAC Address, and the Mobility Domain Name.

For long-term planning, you may want to have an idea of what data center traffic will be like in your area. Cisco has put together a forecast of cloud and data center traffic in different parts of the world, called the Cisco Global Cloud Index (GCI).

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Clearing the access-list (ACL) counters is similar to resetting the trip odometer on your car and provides a clean slate for future reports. When making changes to the configuration, starting the ACL counters at zero grants more reliable data in relation to the current changes. A reset command must be performed within the CONFIG mode in order to restart that counter, or it won’t work.

To reset the ACL, type the command: “clear access-list counters” in CONFIG mode. Results for the ACL command are now cleared. Use the command: “clear int ethernet0” to clear counters in the interface. It might seem more natural to perform these commands within enable mode, but this only works in CONFIG.

There are simple ways to temporarily adjust your timing so that the terminal length displays all the output in the same window, but if you’re consistently exceeding the default 24-line limit it’s probably time to make a permanent change. The temporary expansion of the terminal length is great if you’re in the habit of hitting the space bar every 24 lines, but the permanent change will improve your efficiency even more. A new default length of 40 lines is considered acceptable by most networks, but it should not exceed that length.

To permanently increase the default terminal length for future IOS sessions, type the following into the console: Router#conf t Enter configuration commands, one per line. End with CNTL/Z. Router(config)#line vty 04 Router(config-line)#len Router(config-line)#length ? <0-512> Number of lines on screen (0 for no pausing) Router(config-line)#length 40.

Modifying an interface configuration can be as tedious as picking white cat hair off a black cashmere sweater.Typically, in order to remove unwanted items you have to go through each individual line and put “no” in front. If you need to completely re-do the configuration or are faced with a laundry list of changes, it is simpler and faster to restore the default configuration. Furthermore, it will reduce potential oversight errors.

The data center has become a big differentiator. The more efficiency, the more functionality a company can obtain from its data center the more competitive it can be.

This creates more demand upon the data center for greater agility and flexibility, and more pressure for greater performance and broader capability. Ultimately this results in increased complexity that can make it more and more difficult for a data center to keep up with the constantly growing demand. It becomes a vicious cycle.

This is what inspired Cisco to create the Unified Computing System (UCS). From inception, Cisco described UCS as it’s “end-to-end” solution, bringing every component of the entire compute environment together enabling data center professionals to complete 80% or more of their operational tasks from a single console. Given that IDC reports that the top driver for IT operations and analytics is the requirement for improved infrastructure capacity planning and utilization, having servers, storage, data communications and more all unified under an umbrella of Cisco management tools and systems constitutes a superb solution.

The shift to cloud computing is among the most prolific trends in information technology today. Organizations in both the private and public sectors have already begun migrating applications, services and data to the cloud in an effort to consolidate hardware resources, save money and improve sharing and collaboration capabilities.

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